Editorial: It's not just about jobs when it comes to the EPA doing its job

Associated PressFrom the Stone Crest Golf Course one can see a sports complex on land which was once the site of a coal mine operation near Prestonsburg, Ky. (AP Photo/ James Crisp)

Doing this will kill jobs. Doing that will kill jobs. Doing anything at all will kill jobs.

Apparently that’s the entirety of the book of talking points for mining companies and their apologists. No matter what, just talk about jobs. Maybe then, folks won’t notice what you are doing to the planet.

When the Environmental Protection Agency revoked a mining company’s permit last week, citing overwhelming evidence that its operations in West Virginia were despoiling not only the mountain it was blasting into nothingness, but also the nearby streams and valleys and drinking water, the firm’s response waltzed right on past environmental realities and focused on jobs.

Here’s how the horrible process works: A company gets a permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to rip off the top of a mountain, easing access to the coal below. As the company goes about destroying the land, it dumps what it doesn’t want into the valleys around the disappearing mountain, literally burying nearby streams. As rainwater filters through the rubble, the drinking water for the people all around is contaminated.

This is where the EPA stepped in.

While it moved last week to revoke just one company’s permit for a single operation - the Mingo Logan Coal Co.’s Spruce No. 1 project - there’s good reason to believe that other, similarly dangerous mining projects will soon be stopped as a result.

And anyone can guess what the response will be: This will cost jobs. Well, the EPA has a job to do, too, and that job is to protect the citizenry by protecting the environment.

An enterprise that creates jobs by destroying the planet and endangering the lives of the people who live nearby cannot be allowed to continue.

The EPA is rightly shining a light on the bigger picture. That’s where it must remain.